"In an AI-Generated Era, Content Creation Is About Design, Not Production" [AI World 2026]

[Financial News] "The bottleneck for creators is shifting from 'how to write' to 'what to write and why.' Content is no longer something you simply make; it is something you design."
Kim Woo-jung, director of the artificial intelligence (AI) storytelling lab PROM, said in an interview with Financial News on the 8th, "Low-quality AI-generated content produced in bulk without a clear purpose, known as 'slop,' is flooding the market." He added, "A work with a clear understanding of whom you want to tell a story to and why will not become slop even when AI is used."
Kim has worked in content planning and marketing for nearly 20 years. In 2024, he opened PROM, Korea's first AI storytelling lab. He also runs Insight Club, the country's largest AI storytelling community, with about 10,000 members. PROM has also formed partnerships with MBC C&I and Korea University of Media Arts (KUMA).
Kim emphasized the importance of content engineering, noting that while the volume of content is increasing, users' attention is concentrating on a small number of carefully designed works. This approach creates stories according to a consistent structure rather than relying solely on a creator's instincts or talent.
As a way to put this approach into practice, he introduced the Chain of Story (CoS) framework. It connects each element of storytelling—title, logline, characters, outline, scenes, screenplay, treatment and editing—like an eight-step chain, allowing creators to design stories with AI. Kim stressed, "You need to finalize the blueprint before quickly generating a draft. When the blueprint is solid, the variation in AI-generated results is reduced. Design must always begin with human judgment and end with the human touch." In other words, AI should be used as an amplifier that expands human creators' capabilities, not as a replacement for them.
To maximize creators' capabilities, Kim emphasized the use of heuristic prompting. He explained, "Rather than memorizing standardized commands, it is a way to structure a creator's own intuition and inspiration and convey them to AI." He added, "Before asking AI to produce an outcome, teach it the context first. If you imprint the world-building, character settings, and tone and manner, you can quickly obtain consistent results."
Kim predicted that Korea's storytelling assets and its expertise in engaging fandoms would become competitive advantages in the global AI content market. However, he identified the contraction in investment in the content industry as a challenge that must be addressed. "Venture investment in the content sector fell by more than 90% in just three years, from 1.3073 trillion won in 2022 to 124.4 billion won in 2025," Kim said. "As funds have rapidly shifted to AI and robotics, creators and studios seeking to combine AI with content are facing a funding shortage." He explained that support is needed for content companies' overseas expansion, intellectual property (IP) acquisition and use of AI, along with funding for creators.
PROM aims to establish methodologies such as CoS as industry standards over the next three years. Its plan is to expand the AI storytelling education model validated through Insight Club to universities and companies, establishing it as a system that can be used in creative settings. Kim emphasized, "The way to study and survive in the AI era is not to memorize the right answers, but to develop your own way of asking questions." He added, "AI is the same tool for everyone, but the results will be completely different depending on what you ask."
[email protected] Choi Hye-rim Joo Won-gyu Reporter